BANGALORE/MUMBAI: In the thick of
the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch to the Prime Minister from his own
scientific adviser has termed such tests as one big menace.
Strongly
recommending an immediate halt to the system of sitting for a pile of exams, C N
R Rao , who heads the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SACPM),
said in a letter sent last week that the American method of holding one national
exam before joining university is the way.
Putting it bluntly, Rao told
the PM that India is said to "have an examination system but not an education
system... When will young people stop taking exams and do something worthwhile?"
Referring to the exam overdrive, Rao briefed Manmohan Singh on the
various flavours of examinations that dot a student's life: "It is important to
relook the entire examination system including the system of final examinations,
entrance examinations, qualifying examinations, selection examinations, and so
on. Now one hears of a proposal to have a qualifying or accreditation
examination for medical graduates and post-graduates."
Students who
groan under the pressure of multiple entrance exams will cheer this advice.
Citing the example of Joint Entrance Examination conducted by IIT, he said: "
IIT entrance exams have the reputation of being difficult and purposeful, but
they have also had a negative effect on young minds. Young people suffer so much
to succeed in these entrance exams, and in the process lose excitement in
education itself." The lakhs who don't make it across the IIT gates, Rao told the PM, get exhausted
and can't perform as well as young people with fresh minds.
Talking
about the agony that the Indian higher education sector is in, the SACPM, in a
brief document sent to the PM recently - accessed by TOI - noted, "Today there
is not a single educational institution in India which is equal to the best
institution in the advanced countries".
In view of the growing number of
aspirants for higher education, the SACPM has readied a 10-point checklist of
key problems and challenges. It has asked the human resources development
ministry to set up a taskforce to come up with an action-oriented document
within a year.
"We should seriously consider a possible scenario wherein
the young India advantage enables India to emerge as the provider of trained
manpower for the entire world in the next 20-30 years. This could be a
worthwhile national objective," he told the PM.
Rao's checklist for
higher education include:
Raising the bar: Provide all required support
to 10 educational institutions to enable them to compete with the best in
advanced countries
Look ahead: There's a manpower mismatch in many
countries with too many professionals in some subjects. Prepare a vision
document which foresees the problems 20 years hence.
Inclusivity:
Increase the number of fully residential schools up to higher secondary level in
rural India to nurture rural talent.
the entrance exam season, a furious dispatch to the Prime Minister from his own
scientific adviser has termed such tests as one big menace.
Strongly
recommending an immediate halt to the system of sitting for a pile of exams, C N
R Rao , who heads the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SACPM),
said in a letter sent last week that the American method of holding one national
exam before joining university is the way.
Putting it bluntly, Rao told
the PM that India is said to "have an examination system but not an education
system... When will young people stop taking exams and do something worthwhile?"
Referring to the exam overdrive, Rao briefed Manmohan Singh on the
various flavours of examinations that dot a student's life: "It is important to
relook the entire examination system including the system of final examinations,
entrance examinations, qualifying examinations, selection examinations, and so
on. Now one hears of a proposal to have a qualifying or accreditation
examination for medical graduates and post-graduates."
Students who
groan under the pressure of multiple entrance exams will cheer this advice.
Citing the example of Joint Entrance Examination conducted by IIT, he said: "
IIT entrance exams have the reputation of being difficult and purposeful, but
they have also had a negative effect on young minds. Young people suffer so much
to succeed in these entrance exams, and in the process lose excitement in
education itself." The lakhs who don't make it across the IIT gates, Rao told the PM, get exhausted
and can't perform as well as young people with fresh minds.
Talking
about the agony that the Indian higher education sector is in, the SACPM, in a
brief document sent to the PM recently - accessed by TOI - noted, "Today there
is not a single educational institution in India which is equal to the best
institution in the advanced countries".
In view of the growing number of
aspirants for higher education, the SACPM has readied a 10-point checklist of
key problems and challenges. It has asked the human resources development
ministry to set up a taskforce to come up with an action-oriented document
within a year.
"We should seriously consider a possible scenario wherein
the young India advantage enables India to emerge as the provider of trained
manpower for the entire world in the next 20-30 years. This could be a
worthwhile national objective," he told the PM.
Rao's checklist for
higher education include:
Raising the bar: Provide all required support
to 10 educational institutions to enable them to compete with the best in
advanced countries
Look ahead: There's a manpower mismatch in many
countries with too many professionals in some subjects. Prepare a vision
document which foresees the problems 20 years hence.
Inclusivity:
Increase the number of fully residential schools up to higher secondary level in
rural India to nurture rural talent.
BY VIVEK KUMAR
PGDM - 2 sem
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